Seanad debates

Tuesday, 14 December 2021

Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Barry WardBarry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to make two points in the context of the Minister of State's reply. I respect what he said about the importance of the local authorities. He said that a local authority member is not precluded from becoming a chief executive of MARA. With respect, that is a slightly silly comparison. The people who get involved in local authorities do so because they have an interest in getting involved. Earlier, I referred to a problem with myopia across the Government. Another problem is the failure to recognise that there is a very particular type of person who makes the sacrifices they make to get involved in local government, and we should make no mistake, that is what is involved. We are making it harder and harder for people to make that sacrifice. We are closing more and more avenues for those people by this kind of a provision in legislation which, as I said, exists in several pieces of legislation. It means that if you want to work as a councillor, you are precluded from doing other things that you might be interested in doing or in which you might have a professional or academic interest or be qualified to do. I do not think there is a solid basis for that.

I agree with Senator Malcolm Byrne. Obviously, I accept the Minister of State's bona fides as a former local authority member - he served on a local authority for longer than I did - but there is a general move on the part of the Government away from granting powers to local authorities. The Minister of State spoke about giving powers to local authorities. I do not think that is the case. I do not agree that you can say that they can be involved in committees but not on the board. I do not think that is empowering them. It excludes them from the central decision-making body. The end result is it excludes them from the decision-making process. My experience in Dún Laoghaire has shown that to be a bad thing. There is also the issue that we are telling people that if they become a member of a local authority that they must shut down lots of other aspects of their life, which is a regressive thing to do.As Senator Malcolm Byrne said, what we really want is to have the best people available in the pool of individuals who can be made members of board but the provisions in section 48 and other sections specifically preclude that. The Government is saying that it does not want councillors, whether they are on committees or not, and it is refusing to acknowledge the role they could play. It is also refusing to widen the pool to the extent that it would include all of the people who might do a very good job.

This is not, as happened in the past, about jobs for the boys and girls, an issue of public concern. This is something that is thrown around but in actual fact, we know very well that the Government has put in place a whole load of structures to ensure that the application process is rigorous. People have to go through interview and qualification processes conducted by independent civil servants who do not give jobs to the boys. It is not about that.

In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council there are people, for example, who are very well acquainted with issues in the harbour and who have specific skill sets who are precluded from being on the board and the board suffers as a result. I do not understand the logic behind pushing this section and saying that we must preclude members of local authorities. I also do not understand why Members of the Oireachtas and of the European Parliament should be excluded but I can see a certain practical logic to that because they are removed from local communities in a way that councillors are not. Specifically with regard to members of the local authorities, they are close to the ground and close to the very people we hope will benefit from a MARA. They are connected to the community in a way that an official or ordinary member of the board never will be. I say this in the context of all kinds of local government activities. The chief executive, the director of services or the local engineer will never knock on the door of local residents, introduce themselves, ask the residents how they are doing, what they think of something and how they can help. That is not their job but it is the job of the councillor. The councillor can transmit the views of the ordinary citizen, the residents of the area, the business owners, the concerned key stakeholders or whatever one wants to call them, right into the centre. Obviously, assuming they are the type of qualified person we want on the board, they will either accept or reject what people are saying or suggest ways in which we can accommodate public opinion. One of the real dangers that comes with the MARA is to put in place an authority that is either ignorant of or unconcerned about the issues facing local communities, including residents and businesses. Having a member of a local authority as a potential member of the board is important. I am not saying that they should automatically become members of the board in the way, for example, that the old harbours legislation provided but having the option to have an appropriately qualified and positioned member of a local authority as a member of the board is a tremendously important opportunity for the MARA and for this Bill. It would make this legislation more inclusive and more all encompassing and would ensure that the Bill genuinely does what it seeks to do.

I understand what the Minister of State has said on this. I understand that the legislation has already gone through the Dáil and that we are in the last week of term. There may be a particular view in terms of getting this through but that does not mean that it cannot be done. It does not mean that the amendment cannot be accepted on a reasoned basis. It could then be put to the Dáil for approval. It is a very simple, net issue that could be put to the Dáil if deemed appropriate. It is very important to recognise that this amendment does not come from a place of trying to cause trouble. Its aim is to improve the legislation, the board of the MARA and the effectiveness of the authority in order to allow it to function in the best possible way. I agree with my colleagues that to arbitrarily lock out members of the local authorities who could add so much to the board is a problem. To do so is a myopic action by Government which will discourage people from getting involved in local politics. It will discourage people from getting involved in that side of their local community because it shuts them out of so many areas unnecessarily. I hope the Minister of State will reflect on this and acknowledge that it is a reasonable amendment that could be accepted to improve the legislation.

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